Groq raises $350M to build an inference cloud

Groq raised $350 million at a $3.5 billion valuation to pivot from AI-chip maker toward an Nvidia-powered inference cloud, bringing its recent funding to $1 billion. In Groq’s funding announcement, the company says it operates 13 data centers, serves more than 6 million developers and expects to grow from 54 megawatts to more than 200 megawatts in 2027; TechCrunch’s report notes the valuation is roughly half its $6.9 billion peak. Builders should file Groq as a capacity-and-inference option rather than a chip challenger: its next proof is whether utilization can outrun the capital and hardware risk that shadows every neocloud, a question echoed by the archive’s analysis of AI cloud capex.